Employee Counselling in Organisation

Counselling is discussion with an employee, who has some problem or the other, more particularly emotional in nature. It is intended to help the employee to overcome the emotional stress, so that he/she can get back to the main track of performance. In organizations, the need for counselling may be for several reasons, namely, an employee may fail to achieve the results or performance targets, or an employee may have problems with the team leader, or simply an employee may fail to relate himself/herself to the job as also with the organization (see Table 11.3).

Because of such divergent needs for employee counselling, its characteristics also differ. It may be an exchange of feelings between two people (hence an act of communication), or help to an employee to overcome his/her emotional problems (hence an act of problem solving), or to coach or guide an employee to achieve his/her goals (hence a developmental support), etc.

Objectives/Functions of Counselling:

Whatever may be purpose of counselling, objectives/functions of counselling can be categorized into six major areas which are detailed as follows:

Rendering advice:

It is the function of coaching by the counsellor, who may be the immediate boss or a professional. Here the counsellor listens to the problems of the employees and then guides them to the right direction. Reassurance it is the function of restoring the confidence of the employees, helping them to feel courageous, to gain strength, and to develop positive thinking. In cases, where employees are entrusted with challenging assignments, reassuring them is very important, to help them realize that they can achieve the results.

Clarifying the thinking:

It is the function of encouragement to the employees to be rational and realistic. Employees often lose their emotional balance in executing their assignments and jobs, and hence commit decisional errors. Helping them to be rational by clarifying their way of thinking, puts them back into the realities and enables them to achieve the results.

Release of emotional tension:

It is the process of relief from frustration and stress. The counsellor allows the employees to share their grief. In the process of sharing, employees get relief from their emotional tensions. This does not lead to a solution by itself, but it breaks the ice, allowing the counsellor to understand the possible ways for solution.

Communication:

It is a process of sharing the information and understanding, through upward and downward communication. Upward communication flows from the employees, who bring their feelings and emotional problems to the notice of the management. Downward communication flows from the counsellors, who help the employees get an insight into the activities of the organization.

Reorientation:

It is a process of encouragement to bring internal changes in goals, values, and mental models, helping employees to leverage their strengths and guarding against their weaknesses.

Types of Counselling:

Depending on the reasons for counselling, a counsellor can make use of several types of counselling, as detailed below:

Directive counselling:

In this type of counselling, the counsellor plays the role of an empathetic listener and then takes decisions about the right courses of action for the employees. The counsellor also motivates the employees to follow the suggested courses of action.

Non-directive counselling:

The counsellor uses this type of counselling, not only to listen but also to provoke the employees to explain the problems. On understanding the problems, the counsellor determines the courses of action and then facilitates the employees to identify on their own, the possible solutions to those problems. Since finding solutions to problems is left to the employees who are being counselled, we also call it ‘client-centred’ counselling.

Participative or cooperative counselling:

It is in between the earlier two types of counselling. Here, both the counsellor and the counselled develop close mental relationships, exchange ideas, feelings, knowledge, and information, to overcome the problem of the counselee. Since the possible-solution inputs are also collected from the counselee, we call it participative counselling.

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In organizations, managers have to adopt suitable types of counselling depending on the reasons, type of employees for whom the counselling is intended, and the underlying situation that prevails at a particular point of time. Directive counselling is preferred in those cases, where the employees are unable to decide their courses of action.

Non-directive counseling is for those who are knowledgeable and capable enough to decide, once the problems are explained to them. Participative counselling is effective in cases where organizations are trying to change, which may be for mergers and acquisitions, technological changes, business process reengineering, policy related changes, etc.

Most of the merger cases fail due to emotional blocks of the employees. Videocon’s success in transforming the Philips unit, after acquisition, is attributable to participative counselling. All senior executives were initially told to put in 80 per cent of their time in talking to people and helping them to get their doubts and apprehensions clarified.

This helped the company to enable the people to relate with the transformation process, shedding their age-old legacy bound thoughts and beliefs. However, another Philips unit. Total Plastics Solutions, acquired by their employees could not be transformed. Hence, the manager as counsellor has to adopt a contingency view of counselling, irrespective of his/her preferred style.

Steps in the Counselling Process:

Irrespective of the reasons and the style adopted for counselling, the counsellor has to adopt certain common steps, to make the process successful.

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Such stages or steps are:

Initiating:

At this stage the counsellor establishes a rapport with the employee concerned, developing mutual understanding and promoting openness. This ensures inculcation of confidence in the mind of the person being counselled and in the process, to gain acceptance from that person.

Exploring:

At this stage the counselee is urged to describe in his/her own words, the situation, feelings, problems, and the needs. Here, the counsellor endeavours to let the counselee understand his/her own weaknesses and shortcomings and in the process develop a sense of mutuality. Mutuality is positively relating and interacting with the people. To promote mutuality, the counsellor has to have empathy in his communication, negotiation and mediation skills.

Also, his/her personal attitude should be that of caring and respect for the counselee and should also show an eagerness to cooperate.

Framing of action plan:

To make the counselling process successful, the counsellor has to frame an action plan, duly charting the do’s and don’ts. Thus, counselling is used by organizations as a tool to help the employees to bring about attitudinal changes in themselves and to adjust with the changing situations, duly promoting the sense of mutuality.

However, it is also important to understand that counselling, per se, cannot improve the work environment, or make the workers’ productive. Along with the other tools, counselling has to be used as a supplemental effort to bring about the required improvements and changes in the behaviour of the employees.